I hope that one and all receives exactly the sort of things they're looking for this year, be they unopened 1981 Star Wars figures, a box of Japanese Laser Beasts, a digital camera, or just the simple joy of being with family and friends. All of us here at the Preserve are looking forward with eager anticipation to the many projects on the horizon, but also welcome this time of rest and celebration.

Now wake up and go open those presents! Posted by charlie on December 25th 2006Leave CommentShare

For those still interested, I have finally mustered up the drive to proofread my November Novel effort. It should still be considered a draft that is open to critique and revision, but at least should be moderately free of lame and obvious typos.

The Uncle sent us this link today, as a reminder that there are still amazing and mind blowing things in the world.

Also, further breaking my attempts to remain apolitical on this site, here is a video which I believe everyone should see. It's a rant from an MSNBC commentator (Olbermann) from October, which gives eloquent voice to many of my own thoughts and frustrations. It's long, but worth while, and in some ways surprising. I was, for instance, not aware that habeas corpus had been suspended in October. Posted by charlie on December 19th 2006Leave CommentShare

The very most amazing and best episode of Metalocalypse has just finished airing this sunday night. For anyone who has been following the series, make sure that you see it. I have a suspicion that it was the season finale, because it was so strong, but haven't looked into it yet. Either way, the song, the art, the direction, and the character development are more rich than most any other 15 minute periods in human history. There, I said it. Posted by charlie on December 17th 2006Leave CommentShare

A friend at work pointed me towards this quaint little nightvision video of a dude, a guitar, and a song about being a codemonkey. Something about it is pleasing, if not nearly hardcore enough.
Google images had this to contribute with regard to the phrase 'code monkey', and while a small image, I feel that it more than qualifies for today's Internet Aneurysm.

Observant, or at least more than occasional, readers of the Preserve will notice that an entire right-hand column has sprung up out of nothingness, complete with the tiny start of user features, as well as content features. In short order, I'm going to add a 'comment' feature to the journal, and possibly a forum. One plan is to allow for the discussion, and possibly encouraging the simultaneous playing, of selected older games. First up would be, of course, Neutopia, wherein anyone with access to an emulator, or preferably the real thing, would be encouraged to play and discuss. Now I just better write that forum code, though in the meantime I'm still stuck looking for the Rainbow Drop to get into Level 4! Posted by charlie on December 14th 2006Leave CommentShare

I was delighted to see, on the traversals of the internet, that the fantastic old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon of the 80s has at long last been released on a lengthy DVD set. This seems like something that should end up at the belated tops of many a Christmas list, so get to it!

Also, many of us have probably seen the Mentos-in-Coke amazement, as well as the two cool guys who have risen from the rabble of humanity in their white lab coats, on a mission to put on increasingly clever displays with this simple yet intriguing technology. Well, today I saw the best yet; it amazes in length, variety and ingenuity, and is so worth seeing! Posted by charlie on December 12th 2006Leave CommentShare

Thanks to the great addition of games to the TG-16 library by Steen, I have been experiencing the Zelda-Ripoff-Excitement of Neutopia!

While somehow having less inspired graphics and music than the original-and-still-champ-een, while running on a more 'advanced' system, I still find plenty to enjoy about this game. That wand, by the way, is basically the Zelda boomerang, candle and full-life sword all in one, and it burns the hell out of whole trees - excellent! Much like what I always say about Deadly Towers, it has enough internal consistency, and enjoyable familiar and fun elements to make it really a good time to play. Perhaps the largest downside is the need to carefully write down a 24 character password whenever you're done playing - complete with percents and octothorpes(#) - no battery backup here! Of course that is good and bad, as anyone who has lost an adventure 40 hours in the making due to battery quirkiness can tell you. I will hope to get some screen shots up, and may even make it a feature. Posted by charlie on December 8th 2006Leave CommentShare

After months, even years, of trying to be disinterested in any new toys on the shelves, a combination of watching the new Transformers cartoon along with many conversations with the well-informed Uncle has led me down the garden path at last.

I'm finding that the Transformers Classics series, which has been recently released and will serve as a bridge between the Cybertron line, and the forthcoming movie toys, is really delightful. Not only is it focusing on the original characters, and their original look, but they are well made and look good in all forms, as has been more and more the theme these days.

To make matters worse, I've even realized that the Sigma6 figures are pretty cool too, and am now kicking myself for not getting more of them while they were still on the shelves! Well, I need only look at the various sparse directories in the Toy section of the Preserve to remember what my true goals are, but it is somewhat nice to remember that new toys can be excellent as well.

In other news, I did manage to complete that novel contest, and finished my 50,000 word manuscript several days before the end of November. I still need to proofread it, and then it will be available on line for anyone who has the patience to wade through it.

I have finally spent the time to set up the archives for the Preserve journal. They are organized by month, and are also searchable by random string, in the left hand column at the bottom. Posted by charlie on December 6th 2006Leave CommentShare

I learned recently about the fantastic Japanese version of Spiderman, which was created around 1978. Of course, when I saw how awesome it looks, I chastized myself for not hearing of it before, but I guess you can't know everything! I'm sure it's available in video form here and there, and I bet it's very worth watching.

In other news, the TurboGrafx 16 game collection of Steen has joined the Preserve, and will be added to that section shortly. For those who have not played it, Devil's Crush is a good time, and I generally don't dig on the video pinball. I think it's cool when you take the pinball idea, and do stuff that you couldn't do on a table, whereas a straight port is always just missing something in my eyes. Posted by charlie on December 3rd 2006Leave CommentShare